Tell us about your community ...

Seattle, Washington

Underdogs like myself who are fighting back against big media conglomerates, they continue taking over local outlets(radio, TV and newspapers) all over America, silencing independent voices, especially minorities. They have made a mockery of the commitment to “operate in the public interest”, convenience and necessity.

It is time for the FCC and “Press” to stop serving the agenda of mega media corporations and the politicians they control....and start serving “Democracy” now.
I have lived in Washington's state since 1972, and I have seen many injustices in broadcasting...for example, just to mention one of the hundreds....It is unfair that Anglos, who do not understand the Hispanic culture, language and more....they have the nerve to exploit the Hispanic community, not only by owning the stations, but providing bad programing and hiring mediocre talent....and they continue to get away with it.

If you do research about who owns what?...you will find that these big media conglomerates do not care about the Hispanics at all...they care about money...even if they have to feed them with garbage all the time....but what can you expect of them if they do not speak the language at all, or they don't understand the culture...they cannot tell if the programing is good or bad?..it is like me trying to discern Chinese radio or TV...because I do not understand the language at all.

Spanish TV or radio-are owned by Anglo(most of them)...they just have a “token” (Hispanic)...to cover it.
Sometimes, they put Hispanic (tokens) in front...but the money and profits and manipulations are for the big corporations...Hispanics vote in the elections...they need the Hispanic vote to elect a politician who will protect their wealth.

I remember, when I started Spanish programing in Seattle in1972...nobody(radio station and TV station) wanted to sell airtime to me...I was the pioneer in Spanish commercial radio in Washington state...now they see the 45 million Hispanics and more...they see money and profit.

Now, we have Spanish radio and Spanish TV in Seattle...still owned by Anglo...and these corporations owned many but many radio stations and TV stations ...without concern for the needs of the Hispanic community.

We must continue the quest for justice and awareness in broadcasting in the U.S.A.

As co-owner of a television station in a top 30 market (and an Anglo), we picked up an affiliation with an international Spanish network just over a year ago.

We've a long way to go to become profitable, so it's not like we're taking boatloads of money from the Hispanic community. The other Spanish television stations in the market are all owned by very large corporations hundreds of miles away, so they are indeed sucking money out of the market without concern for the Latino community.

The question that you should be asking is... Where are the local Hispanic broadcast entrepreneurs? What are they waiting for? Frankly, we saw there was a need and an opportunity for a new Spanish station, and have invested a lot of time and money in making it a reality.

One of the ways we currently serve this community is by providing airtime without charge for a local Hispanic businessman who interviews members of the Latino community and addresses current issues relevant to this community. As the income grows, we will do more. It would be great to have a group of local Hispanic business owners collaborate in producing a local or regional newscast that they would own and control.

Hispanics could have established a station in this area, just like we did, and surely would have done a much better job of addressing their community than a large corporate entity or a couple white guys that admittedly know only a couple dozen words of Spanish.

Although our station isn't yet profitable, about 7 years ago we put our first station on the air AND operated it over a year for less than $100,000. It isn't necessarily as expensive as some may think, so opportunities are available. Please stop complaining and start a station, or at the very least, produce a broadcast that addresses the needs you see in the community.

(By the way, the Hispanic community isn't alone in being screwed by big corporate media.)

I am an American citizen...but it doesn't matter...because the big media have the money and power. I tried to own a radio station in Seattle in 1980, so I applied for a new frecuency "the 1200AM".
But there was a conflict of interest with another station...I applied for 1200AM ...and they were in 1220 AM, and they dicided to move to 1210 AM because their radio station would have more power.
I decided to withdraw the application because I did not have the money and time to fight the legal battle.
They won...and once the FCC approved their station with more power...they sold the station to a big media conglomerate....and the Hispanic community in Seattle lost the opportunity to have a spanish radio station, owned and operated by Hispanics....that is the complete true.

The Hispanic community has grown to become the largest minority group in this country. However, hispanic participation and representation in the broadcasting industry continues to decline,which is both a concern for the latino community and a concern from a public policy prospective.